Is Canada fine with being the world’s tech branch plant? (CanCon ep. 132)

So North America has a ‘new NAFTA’, named USMCA (pronounced ‘you-smacka’, courtesy Paul Wells). While our Liberal government is celebrating a successful negotiation with the horse in the hospital, Canada’s tech community is ‘fuming’ over IP concessions.

But this CanCon podcast isn’t just about a supposed IP imbalance (thank the podcasting gods). What has Jim Balsillie, Sean Silcoff, Ben Bergen (and others!) offering stern rebukes in the pages of The Globe and Mail? It’s really a three-sided coin, involving IP, the escalating presence of global tech giants in Canada and their capacity to suck up talent, and government-funded support for Canadian companies ‘nearshoring’ our remaining talent at a hefty markup.

So, everybody’s yelling, but they’re not yelling about the same thing. In fact, most of Canada’s tech community is yelling at each other. Maybe that’s a sign of a multitude of problems, or maybe it’s a sign of an ecosystem growing beyond its comfort zone.

We discuss each side of the coin on this week’s CanCon podcast. Enjoy!